Looking for the perfect diet to help you lose weight or prevent cancer, diabetes or heart disease? Well, look to your ancestors. According to Dr. Daphne Miller, author of The Jungle Effect (HarperCollins, April 2008), the healthiest diets are the ones that have evolved over centuries in remote parts of the world where indigenous people live off the land. Find out what lessons these traditional native diets offer for you…

Miller’s quest to find how food can protect people from the deadliest U.S. diseases took her around the globe. She studied the diets and lifestyles of people living in “cold spots” – regions with unusually low levels of particular ailments. In The Jungle Effect, she analyzes the diets that just might hold the keys to staving off common killers, such diabetes, heart disease, depression, bowel disease, and breast and prostate cancers.

“When I started to look at what’s considered healthy eating around the world, I was shocked and astounded to see how many possibilities there are,” Miller says. Healthful eating is a lot of things, she explains. But one thing it is not is the Western diet common in many American households and restaurants. Picture large hunks of meat, fast food, fried food, and processed foods saturated with added sugars and salt, and you get the idea.

The diets of our pre-industrialized ancestors – the wholesome nourishment that contributed to the health and survival of people in a certain region – are rich in foods that are local, fresh and in-season. They’re also combined in ways that have made sense for hundreds of years, Miller explains. “For example, when you eat your lemon with your greens, you increase the availability of all the nutrients that are in the greens, and you also make the greens taste fantastic,” she says.

The Double Whammy Effect

Immigrants suffer much higher rates of Western disease after they move to the U.S. than their families and friends who stay in their native countries. Why? “First, it has to do with eating much higher rates of processed foods in the U.S.,” Miller says. “Here there’s everything from processed white flours to processed oils to high amounts of meats in the diet to high amounts of processed sugars and sodas. And on top of that, they’re getting less of the medicinal qualities that were in the indigenous foods that they left behind.”

For example, Miller points to Copper Canyon, Mexico, a diabetes cold spot and home to the Tarahumara Indians, who have resisted modernization and continue to enjoy their native diet. Their local environment provides an array of foods that are naturally anti-diabetic: nopal cactus, beans, squash, jicama, cilantro, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, cumin, mustard seeds, and coriander. Once they come to the U.S., she notes, the Indians trade their health-protective foods from home with processed foods that raise their blood sugar.

Ethnic Diets Gone Bad

Even when we try to eat a traditional diet, we usually don’t get very close, Miller says. Food manufacturers and restaurateurs reinvent recipes to fit the American palate, often at the expense of healthy choices. Miller was disheartened to find commercial peanut butter – with all its added sugars and salt – being used in the kitchen of her favorite San Francisco Thai restaurant. One of the most healthful cuisines in the world, she says, was being adulterated to include a highly processed food instead of wholesome whole peanuts, with their heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and protein.

Equally disturbing was what Miller discovered about the common burrito. She compared a burrito from a patient’s favorite taqueria in San Francisco to an authentic one from Copper Canyon. In California, mounds of sour cream, guacamole and salted refried beans were topped with shredded chicken, a white cheese sauce and sprinklings of onion and salsa before being stuffed into a large flour tortilla. At more than 1,000 calories and 2,000 milligrams of sodium, it bore little resemblance to the cigar-sized burrito enjoyed in the Mexican locale. There, Miller found a small handmade corn tortilla filled with a half cup of black beans, some tender shredded meat and a layer of red chili sauce weighing in at a mere 215 calories and 170 milligrams of sodium.

When Miller’s patient, who’d been exhibiting ever-increasing blood sugar levels, limited visits to the local taqueria and began eating a more traditional diet – shopping at local Mexican food stores and preparing most of his own meals – his blood sugar, blood pressure and weight all dropped.

Seven Secrets to Healthy Eating, the Native Way

From Mexico, with its staples of beans and corn, to Iceland, with a diet rich in fish, seaweed and dried peas, to Greece, known for its olive oil, fresh greens and thick yogurt, Miller discovered several notable similarities in disease-preventing indigenous diets. Here are seven healthy eating patterns that have been passed from one generation to the next around the world.

1. Eat whole grains.

If grains are processed at all in the world’s healthiest diets, it’s by mortar and pestle or an old mill. Compare that to most grains in America, which are typically processed with “modernized, heavy equipment and acetone and other additives to make them into the fluffy, white, high sugar-releasing foods that we eat,” Miller says. Whole grains are higher in fiber, protein and other nutrients, and they have a much richer, nuttier taste. (See related article? 5 Reasons You Need a High-Fiber Diet)

2. Enjoy naturally sweet and salty flavors.

Sweetness in food comes from fruits, grains and sweet potatoes. Salt comes from fish and sea greens, and from fermented foods like miso. A diet is much healthier when sugar and salt are present in their natural proportions to the whole food, Miller suggests.

3. Eat ample vegetable protein.

Meat doesn’t take center stage in indigenous diets. It’s generally served as a main course only during feasts and celebrations and used sparingly as a flavoring or treat for everyday meals.

4. Include fermented foods in your daily diet.

Most cultures eat an assortment of fermented foods. For example, Germans eat sauerkraut, South Africans eat fermented millet and the Japanese eat miso. Such foods offer many health benefits: they aid digestion, re-balance the good and bad bacteria in your stomach, likely help prevent food allergies and intolerances, and may even lower the risk of colon polyps and colon cancer. West Africans may owe their low rates of colon cancer to the sour milk and fermented corn and millet they consume, which provides a healthy dose of good bacteria. (This doesn’t mean that it’s okay to down a six pack of beer every night!)

5. Season food liberally with herbs and spices.

In this country, we season our foods predominantly with salt and sugar. Each of the indigenous diets Miller studied gets its distinctive flavors from turmeric, ginger, cumin, and other herbs and spices that not only taste and smell wonderful, but impart medicinal properties.

6. Turn meals into social events.

In the cultures Miller visited, families sat together at mealtime, sharing stories and enjoying food. As a result, she says, they probably eat less and more slowly. They certainly don’t eat in front of the TV, where it’s easy to lose touch with your hunger and fullness cues.

7. Enjoy feasting… occasionally.

According to Miller, most indigenous populations enjoy an indulgent and decadent meal once a month or once every few months, though routine overeating is foreign. In Okinawa, Japan – a cold spot for breast and prostate cancers – Miller learned an essential aspect of Okinawan eating, Hara Hachi Bu. Translated, this means “Eat until you are eight parts full.” In other words, eat until you are satisfied, but not stuffed. “Whatever you were going to eat, take twenty percent of that and put it aside,” Miller advises. In Thailand, she adds, people never insult their hosts by cleaning their plates. Eating everything you’re served in that country is like saying you weren’t fed enough.

Five Ways to Cook and Eat Like Your Ancestors

Since none of us lives in a place where we can rely on ancient wisdom and practices to teach us to eat healthfully and mindfully, Miller suggests taking these conscious, active steps to improve your health and well-being and to reduce your risks for disease.

1. Slow down and savor food.

While dining in Crete, a very hungry Miller was scolded “siga, siga” by her waiter. Siga, siga means “slow, slow.” Many cultures embrace eating slowly and savoring each bite. “It’s not just about quantity, it’s really the whole speed and rhythm of eating,” Miller says.

2. Ease into a new way of eating.

Make lifestyle changes slowly. That makes it easier to stay on course. Since eating habits are ingrained from childhood, it’s hard and sometimes painful to make a lot of changes at once, Miller says.

3. Eat more vegetables.

Fresh veggies are easy to prepare, delicious to eat and a great way to curb hunger without stuffing yourself with empty or unhealthy calories. Fill your plate with the veggies you already know and love – and try some you’ve never eaten.

4. Eat seasonally and locally.

Check out local farmers’ markets and read up on what’s new and fresh.

5. Be adventurous and cook more.

Experiment with whole grains like quinoa and barley. Eat a fermented food each day or with each meal. Be creative with fresh spices. Miller suggests flavoring your food with hot peppers, which may slow digestion, and cumin, ginger and turmeric to combat inflammation.

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